IMF to support Africa’s oil exporters

Created: Monday, 08 February 2016 07:16

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde. (Image source: Christine Lagarde)The International Monetary Fund said it will support sub-Saharan Africa’s oil exporters to survive at a time of falling crude prices and growing fiscal pressures as Nigeria and Angola turn to the World Bank for financial assistance

With an estimated US$15bn budget deficit in 2016, Nigeria’s finance ministry has stated it is looking to borrow up to US$5bn. It has held talks with the World Bank, African Development Bank and China’s Export-Import Bank due to their "concessionary rates of interest."

The World Bank is discussing potential financing for Nigeria and Angola through a programme which aims to enable structural changes in an emerging market country's economy and government institutions. The two sub-saharan African countries, however, are not the only oil-exporting countries to seek financial assistance. The IMF and World Bank have been in talks with Azerbaijan about a US$4bn financing package.

"The sharp decline in oil prices represents a formidable shock on the oil exporting countries of sub-Saharan Africa, especially in view of their strong reliance on oil receipts for fiscal and external revenues," an IMF representative said in a statement.